Saturday, September 25, 2010

Our dear friends Dorte & Jakob welcomed us with an authentic Danish lunch in their beautiful garden. (We actually didn’t see Astrid for the three days we were there as she spent her hole stay in their garden. She had a blast with their daughter’s toys, and would only come inside when hungry and exhausted with play).

We went for walks along the shore and saw beautiful houses like this one

After our three days with Dorte, Jakob and their kids we all left together for Copenhagen. Were we were headed for a reunion with lots of friends that Dorte and I travelled together with almost 15 years ago. Back then we were 126 kids between 17 and 26 years old from around the world.

We travelled together for eleven months and visited 26 states in the USA, 26 cities in Mexico, Montreal and Toronto in Canada, and several cities in Sweden and Finland. I stayed with 97 host families! I did community service in half of the cities we visited (and was on stage crew - set up the stage - in the other half of the cities).

This year 50 of us met in Copenhagen. Counting our spouses and kids we summed a 100 and something people. I had been looking forward to this since 2008 when we had our last reunion. Every 5 years we have an official reunion were almost every one of us get together. In between each five years we try to make a smaller reunion. This was the small one.

It is amazing how after all these years we still make an effort to see each other. Our friendships have matured and grown stronger in pace with us growing up and becoming more mature. In spite the fact that there are so many different people in our group I truly love them all and feel blessed to have them in my life. Even if we are spread all over the world I know they will be there for me if and when I need them. They always step up no matter what the challenge is. No matter who is in need of encouragement or prayer.

Inbetween all the planned activities we managed to sneak in a visit to Granola Café were we shared coffee and conversation with our friends Karina & Jeff. I also bought some more Kusmi tea here.

We visited the Tivoli

And after the kids were gone to bed and the designated baby sitters arrived on time we all went for a well deserved pub crawl. Cheers!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

After the wedding... (did you really think I was going to show you the photos today? I am too much of a tease for that. Stay tuned, there will be a glimpse of our wedding after August *smile*)...

...we stayed a couple of days in Llafranc. Our family and several of our friends stayed as well. We enjoyed spending time with them, being able to talk more with everyone, share delicious dinners (from this restaurant), desserts, laughter and late night sangrias.

We had long and lazy breakfasts, hours at the beach, reading news papers and swimming, dinners in the shade and afternoon walks through neighbouring villages. These pictures are taken in Peratallada.

After Llafranc we spent a couple of days together with my husbands (so strange to write that word) family in the village were they live close to Girona. One of my favourite moments is when Astrid bonded with her cousin while trying on her brand new sun glasses.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

We have had summer filled with blissful moments that has fuelled our batteries with energy that shall last until next summer. I am sure you have fuelled your own batteries with your own moments, but if you haven’t or if you want to take a peek into our moments stay with me. The coming days I will share June, July and August with you. Welcome back!

It rained and rained... lovely tip tapping summer rain

Astrid loved it. She loves any kind of water, ponds, ocean, pools, lakes, kitchen sinks... as long as there is water she's with it.I layed out all my favourite summer outfits on the bed before we went to Spain. It's hard to leave favourits behind but I managed to not bring too much this summer (I had a big white dress that took most of the suitcase space).

Our balcony garden bloomed and thrived (it is still blooming). And even if we don't have bees like this Montana girl we were blessed with bumble bees and the smell of lavender.

I prepared gifts for my bridesmade and four other good friends that helped me out on our wedding day. Besides my bridesmade I had a bracelet made for my hair dresser friend, my make-up friend, my photographer friend, and one for my "you need to go for a morning swim on your wedding day" friend. They all contributed to a calm and happy bride.